Christmas Recap

Just a little post-Christmas update here—the last couple weeks have been crazy in my house. It seems I haven’t stopped shopping, baking, wrapping, cleaning—basically MOVING—for days. However it was all worth it to be able to spend some time with my family and Erik’s, share holiday traditions, and just enjoy each other. We spent Christmas Eve with Erik's family and had a fantastic time (Erik's mom outdid herself with the food and Erik's nephew got a visit from Santa) and Christmas Day was at my house with my parents who drove all the way from St. Louis to be with my brother and I.  The only people we were missing we my sister, brother-in-law, and nephew who were up in Ohio celebrating with my brother-in-law’s family, and Erik's sister Lori and her girlfriend (both of whom I haven't met yet) who were vacationing in Ireland. <---ugh, can we say jealous here??

I have to admit that I was a little nervous about hosting my first family Christmas at the house—mostly because my mom broke her arm a few weeks ago and wasn’t going to be able to help me with cooking and baking which meant Christmas dinner was up to me. Yikes! I wanted everything to be perfect for a couple of reasons: 1. My mom always makes Christmas so special for us at her house and I wanted to do the same for her and my dad, and 2. Erik’s parents were going to be joining us for dinner and it would be the first time our parents would meet. All in all I think everything went very well. Dinner was pretty easy-- I bought a Honeybaked ham (always delish), cooked green beans,  a squash casserole, an orange jello salad (a traditional Christmas dinner item in my family), and my mom was able to throw together her yummy scalloped potatoes. Erik’s mom brought dessert—an amazing white chocolate bread pudding that was too tasty for its own good. Everyone ate and chatted and seemed to have a great time.  The parents got along well (which I wasn’t too worried about if I’m being completely honest) so I was really happy about that too.

The only misstep that occurred this Christmas was mostly my fault. I made the mistake of giving the same Christmas list to my mom and Erik’s mom. As a result we got 3 immersion blenders (Erik bought one for me having not even seen the list—he just knew we needed one), 2 griddles, and 2 blue-ray dvd players! Admittedly this is not a bad problem for Erik and I as the receiver of these gifts but I did feel bad for both moms. Next year I guess I will need to focus on preparing 2 different lists. Lesson learned.

(Oh and just so you readers know the immersion blender was not the only thing I got from Erik. He also gave me an awesome Kindle Fire. Just felt he might want you to know that.)

So with Christmas behind us Erik and I are looking forward to celebrating the New Year together (god, can you believe it’s almost here??). We’ll be partying with my brother and some friends playing games, eating finger food, and praying that 2012 will be full of jobs, good health, and lots of love for everyone.  Oh and did I mention it will also be Erik and I’s one year anniversary? That’s right—we had our first date New Year’s Eve last year. Can I get a collective awwwww? It’s almost hard to believe because I feel like we’ve known each other forever. I can’t believe how lucky I am to have found such a fantastic, sweet, wonderful, loving, and caring person. You know it must be love when you can’t even think about the person without smiling to yourself…but enough of this gooey gushing. I only wish that everyone could feel as loved as I have this year. 

And with that, I hope everyone out there has a fantastic New Year! See you in 2012! : )